


Burn

by koalaity



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Hogwarts Sixth Year, I might write a chapter 2 for this??, Possibly Unrequited Love, Pre-Relationship, albus is sad, happy/hopeful ending, i might not, james is one year above, james sirius is the best brother, like really idk why I wrote angst I hate angsty fics, okay so I did write a chapter 2, scorpius got his hug guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:29:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23252491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalaity/pseuds/koalaity
Summary: Albus Potter is in love with Scorpius. Scorpius is in a relationship with Albus’ cousin.
Relationships: Albus Severus Potter & James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter & James Sirius Potter & Lily Luna Potter, Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 13
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really don’t know why I wrote this and I’m not expecting anyone to read it really- I most likely wouldn’t. But some of yall like angst?? (Is it that heavy?? Idk it just felt sad) I’m sorry for this. Also I usually don’t even like it when people involve Rose because?? Scorbus?? But I did it anyway??? (I’m starting to feel like maybe this was something I had to get out of my system before I can keep reading all the happy fics)
> 
> I never know how to end things either so I may or may not write a happier extra chapter?? Please don’t hold your breath for one though.
> 
> Hope you all stay safe <3

Albus Potter was sitting by the lake, leaning against the trunk of the big oak tree, studying. Well, he was trying to. But the sunlight was gleaming off Scorpius’ pale hair and it was quite blinding actually, now that the spring sky had finally come. The two best friends were sitting there in a comfortable silence catching up on their latest potions essay- only it wasn’t comfortable for Albus. At all. 

You see, they had grown inevitably closer since their fourth year time travelling shenanigans, and Scorpius seemed to subconsciously like the comfort of touch ever since he had to live a reality without his best friend; so when they sat in the great hall, their arms would be pressed together even though they had plenty of space, and when they lay in the common room, Scorpius would press the sides of their feet against one another as if he were checking that Albus was still there. Little touches, innocent between friends (even if a little excessive). This was fine, right? Not really. 

Because Albus felt his skin catch fire every time Scorpius pressed closer to him, his stomach flipping every single time he did so, and it burned. The blonde shone in the daylight like a star, and Albus was always too close, too hot next to the flames. It was eating him alive. Scorching. He craved his touch, his company; it was everything he wanted- but it was painful when he knew wanted more and could never have it. 

The dark haired teen quickly shook his head as if to clear it, _pft, as if that’s ever worked before,_ he thought bitterly, trying to concentrate back on his theory behind the draught of living death. The movement seemed to catch the other boy’s attention, and he languidly stretched his limbs out like a sleepy cat before sighing. Albus had to hold back a sigh of his own. He was too beautiful. 

“I’ve got to go soon,” Scorpius’ eyes seemed to clear up a little after focusing so long on his parchment, “I’m meeting Rose at Hogsmede in half an hour!” 

There it was. The punch to Albus’ gut. 

“Yeah, yeah we know,” he replied, easily slipping on a teasing smile and rolling his eyes playfully even though all he wanted to do was scream. “We all know it’s your one year anniversary with Rose ‘the most amazing girl oh Merlin Albus can you believe she said yes’ Granger-Weasley.” He tried to make his laugh not sound hollow and judging by how Scorpius shoved his shoulder playfully he succeeded. “Hope you two have fun!” He beamed up at Scorpius as the other got to his feet and gave him a great big genuine smile in thanks that made Albus melt into the grass before he turned to leave. And how dare he leave him like that, a puddle in the aftermath of a supernova.

His eyes followed his friend’s movements as he walked away and he finally let the smirking expression slide off his face. He was used to this twisting feeling in his stomach; he now knew that he didn’t actually want to throw up (although these days, it felt more like his intestines were being pulled out slowly by a string attached to Scorpius’ feet, but maybe that’s just Albus being dramatic). Merlin, he had it bad. And it burned.

“You should tell him,” a familiar voice said from beside the tree.

“Argh!” Albus jerked in surprise and swung his head round to glare viciously at the smirking teen trying to look all suave and inconspicuous.  
“You scared me,” he growled without any real heat. 

James ignored him. “Watching you watch him is like watching Uncle Ron drool over Christmas dinner,” he said, before plopping down opposite his brother and kicking his legs in a bit so that his longer legs had room. 

“I dunno what you’re talking about,” Albus said sulkily, trying to glare at him again but his blushing cheeks ruined the effect he was going for. Not that his glare would have bothered James anyway.

“Little bro, I can tell that you’re going to burst if you hold it in any longer.” Albus huffed. “And don’t deny it either. I know you.” 

Albus looked down and stayed silent.

“You should tell him,” James repeated after a moment, nudging his brother’s shoe with his. 

Albus looked at him angrily. “Oh yeah? What do you propose that I say?? ‘Oh hey Scorp it’s ya best friend. I know you’ve just got back from your lovely date with the girl you’ve been obsessed with for years, but I absolutely _had_ to tell you that I’m in love with you. Hope this doesn’t ruin our friendship. Oh yeah, how was your anniversary??’” He spat out sarcastically. There was a strangled gasp behind him. And James watched as Albus completely froze in utter terror, eyes widening almost comically and gaze pleading as he frantically whispered, “ _Please_ tell me that’s not him.” 

James’ apologetic look said everything he needed to know, and he squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. 

“Uumm, I just. Came back for that,” Scorpius stuttered awkwardly, pointing limply at the wrapped box laying innocently beside James’ hand. Albus turned his head away and squeezed his eyelids even harder. “Albus, I-“

“Please don’t.” The dark haired teen cut him off. 

“I-“

“ _Please_ just go on your date,” his attempted stern voice wavered at the end of his sentence and a single tear slipped down his cheek, still with his face turned away. Scorpius looked in panic to James, who gave him a small nod. The blonde took a deep breath in and James nodded at him again.

Albus only opened his eyes once he could no longer hear the footsteps crunching on the grass moving away and a sob shook his entire soul as he finally let go. His older brother’s arms wrapped tightly around him, sturdy and safe, until he ran out of tears. 

☼☼☼

Al fell back onto his bed with a quivering sigh. James told him to go to his slytherin dorm and get some rest, but if he was being honest he would have rather gone up to the Gryffindor dorms, or even have just fallen asleep out by the lake. He didn’t want to be alone. He would never fall asleep alone in here, not when his bedsheets smelled like Scorpius and the slightly ripped edge of his curtains reminded him of the time Scorpius practised the banishing charm in their room and epically failed and the empty bed beside him looked wrong without Scorpius’ sleepy grin stuffed into the pillow. Albus sighed again. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Scorpius. 

But what else could he do? Nothing was ever going to be the same now he knew. Albus knew Scorpius wouldn’t ever stop being friends with him because of this, and that he would try to keep things normal between them, but Albus knew it was always going to have an uncomfortable undertone now. Scorpius would squeeze beside him on the sofa like always before freezing and awkwardly shuffling away a bit to give them room, or he would avoid speaking to Rose as much around him to spare his feelings. Which Albus would appreciate actually, but it would not be natural. He’d lose his best friend. 

He felt the wetness creep back into his eyes and held them back, thankful that his other two dorm-mates usually kept their distance from hanging out in here. Not that they would stay here on a Hogsmede weekend, anyway. 

The door flung open, and he slowly turned his head towards it but the doorway was clear. No one there. 

He shuffled up to a seating position and stared with furrowed brows at the empty space for a moment before the air swirled as floating fingers that appeared out of nowhere grabbed the nothing and pulled it off, leaving a breathless looking James clutching his invisibility cloak and a small beaming Lily close beside him. Albus’ mouth twitched upwards before he was attacked by two Potters and landed backwards in his mattress with an oomph.

“Can’t- breathe-“ he gasped out, but his protests landed on deaf ears.

When Lily finally crawled off him, she pulled out mounds of chocolate from her cloak pockets, and flung a bar each towards her brothers before ripping open a packet for herself and stuffing her face with it. Albus giggled and followed her actions, grabbing at the food and pushing at James to roll off him. 

“You’re squashing me!! You’re heavy you know, Mr Star Quidditch Player.” 

James dramatically gasped, his hand flying up to clutch his chest, “A fan!! Lils quick, get me some paper so I can give him an autograph!” Lily giggled and Albus rolled his eyes before giving his shoulder another shove, making James shriek loudly as he clutched on to the edge of the bed, dangerously close to falling off.  
“I’m gonna fall I’m gonna fall, Albie heeellppp!” 

Thud.

Lily’s giggling increased so that the bed was shaking with it. 

Thud. She fell off the edge from laughing too hard. 

☼☼☼

An hour later, a weary Scorpius held his breath as he pushed open the dormitory door. He was going to talk to Al. _You can do this,_ he thought, and then immediately felt like a dickhead for being so nervous when Albus was probably heartbroken. He had no right to be nervous. 

Still, he was shitting himself. 

He opened his mouth to speak but cut himself off before any words could escape because in front of him was a sleeping Potter sandwich. Albus and a sibling either side of him, cuddled up close on his bed (which was far too small for three teenagers) amidst an abundance of sweets wrappers. The blonde could see that his best friend had puffy eyes, but looked peaceful in his sleep as the other two slept soundly beside him and it brought a small smile to his face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius’ POV. He is confused, and the style of writing is supposed to reflect his thoughts...  
> I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments!! They definitely made me want to cave and write this next bit. I hope you enjoy??????

Scorpius’ hands trembled around the wrapped box of chocolate caldrons as he took worried steps forward to where he was meeting Rose. His girlfriend. Merlin, he felt so muddled. Thoughts were racing through his head as if 50 snitches had been let loose at once and every time two of them clanged together he felt a growing headache behind his eyes. Rose waved him over from a table inside The Three Broomsticks. When had he entered? Scorpius didn’t know.

His feet took him towards her (thankyou, feet) and he gave her a weak smile, sitting down opposite her as she greeted him. Her calculating eyes swept over his expression and her face instantly screwed up in concern. 

“What’s wrong, Scorp?”

(No thankyou, face) “Uhm,” he replied, then cleared his voice to get rid of the shakiness, “nothing’s wrong. Happy anniversary.” He thrust the box jerkily across the table towards her, making Rose frown. Oh Merlin, he was doing this all wrong. He tried pulling himself together to give her a proper smile, if not a bit apologetic for acting weird. He thought he did a pretty good job of it, but she could still detect something off about it. 

How on earth was he supposed to sit through this? 

_but I absolutely _had_ to tell you that I’m in love with you_

How long? How had he not noticed? 

He tried to refocus on Rose’s face. She was pretty. So pretty. And wickedly smart too, which definitely played a role in setting off the silly crush that he’d had on her for ages, and he couldn’t truly believe it when she finally agreed to go out with him last year. They had nice times together. Then Scorpius cringed a little. _Nice?_

“What happened?” She queried. 

What happened, indeed.

She had kissed him first, after their fourth ‘date’ and it had made him feel warm inside. Was that was love is? 

On his birthday, she had gotten him a new hair crème and then promptly smothered some into his pale strands to style it with gentle fingers as soon as he nodded that she could. Later that day Albus had wrinkled his nose and said it made it hair too stiff, and Scorpius didn’t put it in again the next morning. He told Rose that it made his eyes sting a little, so he must be allergic to it, before gripping her in a hug to thank her anyway. 

Scorpius’ eyes briefly glanced down at her mouth. When was the last time they’d kissed? He couldn’t fathom why he didn’t do it more often. 

“Scorp?” 

He tried to think of the easiest way to comfort Albus, to let him down. But something about that didn’t sit right with him for some reason. Not that he had to let him down- Al knew he was in a relationship. Was he in love with Rose? 

He peered into her eyes. They hadn’t said it to each other yet. Scorpius hadn’t even thought about it. Had she? 

His brain tried to imagine the next thing he would say to his best friend. He didn’t know. His eyes began to sting even more. 

“Scorpius?” Rose’s tone had softened. So had her eyes. “You can talk to me,” she added gently, placing her hand over the top of his in a comforting gesture. 

Something in him broke. “Uhhm,” he said shakily, only increasing Rose’s worry, and he opened his mouth to add more, but no words came out. Albus’ teary, horrified face turned away from him. He tried again. “I don’t know what to do.” 

Scorpius was clutching onto that first tear for dear life because he knew if he let it slip, they wouldn’t stop. 

Rose didn’t say anything, she just got up and gathered him into a hug. It was getting harder to hold onto that tear. 

“I just found out, accidentally,” he started quietly after a minute of silence, “that. That Albus is in love with me.” 

Rose was quiet. “Oh,” she said breathlessly after a moment and continued rubbing circles into his back. 

His knees pressed together with Albus’ under the table in transfiguration. Their nightly ‘goodnight’ hug, which Scorp had started after their fourth year and was in constant terror of going to sleep only to wake up in a universe that didn’t have his best friend in it. He supposed that fear had kind of lingered.

Albus was his best friend. His _only_ friend, excluding Rose. No. Rose was his girlfriend. Even though sometimes they acted more like friends. Wait what? 

“I don’t know what to do,” Scorpius repeated quietly, a pleading whisper that was directed into her shoulder as he clutched her tightly. 

Its not like he had strung Albus on. He was just a good friend to him. The thought made his chest clench and his breaths shook harder.

_Please just go on your date_

He could hear the break in his voice, etched painfully into his memory, and it broke his heart while simultaneously mocking him. Because look how it had turned out. Rose’s jumper had a growing dark patch on her shoulder, and it was wet. When did he start crying?

And why was it effecting him so much? 

Scorpius thought that it was because of the true venom in the way Albus had spat out the idea of confessing; the pure pain was evident. And Scorpius missed it all completely (what a best friend he was). But that also didn’t feel like the whole truth somehow. 

Albus’ face turned away from him, but he could see the teary, horrified expression anyway. 

On his mum’s birthday, the young Malfoy hid from the world. It was a Sunday, so it was pretty easy to avoid people, especially Rose when there weren’t any lessons to go to. Albus found him. He found him anyway and dragged him down to the kitchens and pulled out a food stained recipe he had asked his grandma for and roped Scorpius into baking and dotted his nose with cake batter until he cheered up a little. Then the dark haired teen pulled out a freshly made lemon drizzle, Astoria’s favourite, gave Scorpius a sheepish smile before Scorpius suddenly threw his arms around him. His grief bubbled up inside him again yet was less tinged with hurt than before, it now felt more like remembrance and love, and he had Albus to thank for that. 

Rose breathed in, and he could hear her open her mouth to speak. 

Her hair smelled lovely, like lillies and, ironically, roses but it didn’t provide the same comfort as apples and cinnamon. That’s what Albus smelled like. 

“I think you do,” she said gently, and they pulled away slightly to look at each other. She nodded her head a little. 

Scorpius took in a sharp breath, his lungs filling quickly, _at least they worked properly_ he thought moodily. The same could not be said about his mouth. “I...” he trailed off, searching her eyes for any emotion and what he found there wasn’t what he was expecting. Not anger. Understanding.

“It’s okay Scorp. I know this was real for you. It was real for me too.” He prepared to tense at these words but instead felt slight relief wash over him and he felt so, so grateful for this girl in front of him, that she knew exactly what he was thinking. “I think we’ll make great friends,” she smiled and nudged him delicately, “we were more like friends than anything anyway.” 

He felt his smile grow on his face and leaned forward to hug her again. “Besides,” she added from behind his head, her voice suddenly took on a cheeky and playful tone, “don’t you think it’s extremely satisfying that our romance lasted _exactly_ one year?” The blonde blew out a startled laugh and shook his head in amusement.


End file.
